https://dockduty.com/blog/ Notes from DockDuty on autonomous-vehicle depot operations, robotaxi economics, and what we're learning building the dock for AV taxis — honest, dated, projections labeled as projections. en-us Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://dockduty.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-robotaxi-depot.html https://dockduty.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-robotaxi-depot.html Thu, 27 Aug 2026 17:30:00 -0400 No published industry average exists, so here is the cost stack line by line with 2026 sourced figures, from a team building one: 150kW DC fast-charge ports at $90,000–$150,000 installed with make-ready electrical and civil work driving 50–70% of the total; pad-mounted transformers at $40,000–$300,000 quoting 12–18 months in mid-2026 against eight weeks in 2023, which makes utility interconnection the schedule's critical path; Orlando industrial rents at $11.62/sq ft NNN; and Pony.ai's disclosed three-staff-per-100-robotaxis operations ratio. Plus the derived demand math that shrinks the bill — a Cybercab's ~33 kWh service day means a 50-cab depot needs about 1.65 MWh per night, an average overnight draw near 165 kW — and an honest note on why DockDuty won't publish its own budget mid-negotiation. https://dockduty.com/blog/best-cities-to-own-a-robotaxi.html https://dockduty.com/blog/best-cities-to-own-a-robotaxi.html Thu, 27 Aug 2026 14:00:00 -0400 Where should a future robotaxi owner position? Three layers have to stack: permissive state law (Florida's no-permit FS 316.85 leads), live networks (seven multi-network metros as of late August 2026), and dense short-ride demand (Orlando's record 76.7M visitors). The ranked list — Orlando, Austin, Miami, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Dallas/Houston, Tampa — plus the friction column (California's permit gauntlet, NYC's carve-out), the watch list, and the Florida wildcard: Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers need no new regulation to turn on, just an operator's decision. Our analysis, every claim dated and cited; re-weight the layers and you'll get a different order. https://dockduty.com/blog/tesla-robotaxi-las-vegas.html https://dockduty.com/blog/tesla-robotaxi-las-vegas.html Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0400 The Nevada Transportation Authority approved Tesla's Autonomous Vehicle Network Company permit on August 20, 2026 — up to 5,000 robotaxis in Clark County over twelve months, expandable statewide on notification, with paid rides expected within about 30 days pending inspections, insurance filings and rate documentation. The initial fleet is Model Y; the Cybercab debuts in Austin on September 3 instead. Plus the full four-network Vegas scoreboard: Zoox charging fares since August 10 under its NHTSA exemption, Waymo on employee-only rides since July 8 with public service still "Up Next," and Uber permitted the same day as Tesla. https://dockduty.com/blog/what-is-unsupervised-fsd.html https://dockduty.com/blog/what-is-unsupervised-fsd.html Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0400 Unsupervised FSD means nobody is responsible for the drive — no driver, no in-car monitor — and it is a different product from the FSD (Supervised) in customer cars. It runs in six US metros per Tesla's Q2 2026 report: Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando and Tampa, with the Bay Area still on safety drivers and Las Vegas approved August 20. Tesla widened hours to 6 a.m.–10 p.m. everywhere on August 26. No customer-owned Tesla can drive unsupervised anywhere yet, and Tesla confirmed on its Q1 2026 call that HW3 cars never will. https://dockduty.com/blog/tesla-network-explained.html https://dockduty.com/blog/tesla-network-explained.html Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0400 The July 20, 2016 Master Plan Part Deux promised owners could add their cars to a shared autonomous fleet and earn while not using them. The service that shipped is the mirror image: seven metros, six unsupervised, and every single car owned by Tesla. The dated ledger from the 2016 promise through the 2019 revenue aside to the Q2 2026 earnings call that did not mention owner cars at all — plus the four things that must exist before a customer car can join. https://dockduty.com/blog/robotaxi-index-fund.html https://dockduty.com/blog/robotaxi-index-fund.html Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0400 A robotaxi-specific ETF now exists — CABZ, trading since January 14, 2026 at a 0.59% gross expense ratio — but it is actively managed, so it is not literally an index fund; the true index funds nearby (DRIV, IDRV, KARS) cover the broader autonomous-vehicle and EV shelf. What each holds, Goldman Sachs' April 2026 projection of a $415 billion global robotaxi market by 2035, and the honest comparison between paper exposure and a titled vehicle. General information, not investment advice. https://dockduty.com/blog/how-many-rides-does-a-robotaxi-give-per-day.html https://dockduty.com/blog/how-many-rides-does-a-robotaxi-give-per-day.html Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0400 Every robotaxi earnings model stands on one number — rides per vehicle per day — and no operator publishes it. Waymo's disclosed ride counts divided by its disclosed fleet: about 24 a day in April 2025, about 23 in March 2026 after the fleet doubled. Roughly 150 miles a day, a derived 3.4-mile average trip, and the peer-reviewed finding that only about 54% of Waymo's California miles carried a passenger. The division shown, every figure dated, all owner math labeled projection. https://dockduty.com/blog/how-to-vet-a-robotaxi-depot-company.html https://dockduty.com/blog/how-to-vet-a-robotaxi-depot-company.html Thu, 20 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0400 Ten checks you can run yourself in about twenty minutes: state registry, named founders, refund window, title, total fees, wind-down. Our answers to each. https://dockduty.com/blog/cybercab-vs-model-y-robotaxi.html https://dockduty.com/blog/cybercab-vs-model-y-robotaxi.html Tue, 18 Aug 2026 08:10:00 -0400 Neither car can earn on Tesla's network today — it has never opened to customer-owned cars. One is orderable tonight (Model Y, ~$41,630 real base cost, 5 seats); the other has no order book and, per Electrek (July 6, 2026), "won't be sold to consumers in the foreseeable future." Tesla's own robotaxi fleet is all Model Ys. Price per seat, the seven-year owner-car ledger, the HW3 gate, and where Cybercab production actually stands as of Tesla's Q2 2026 update. https://dockduty.com/blog/tesla-robotaxi-miami.html https://dockduty.com/blog/tesla-robotaxi-miami.html Fri, 14 Aug 2026 22:30:00 -0400 Miami is Florida's only two-network robotaxi city — Waymo since January 22 (open to everyone since April, ~60 sq mi), Tesla since July 3 (West Miami/Doral). Zones, fares, how to ride each, and how owners eventually join. https://dockduty.com/blog/tesla-robotaxi-tampa.html https://dockduty.com/blog/tesla-robotaxi-tampa.html Fri, 14 Aug 2026 22:30:00 -0400 Tesla's robotaxi has run Tampa since July 21, 2026 — downtown, Ybor City, Tampa Heights, West Tampa. The zone, reported fares ($3.25 + ~$1/mi), what's not covered yet, and Tampa's place as dock #3 on DockDuty's roadmap. https://dockduty.com/blog/what-cut-does-tesla-take-from-robotaxi-owners.html https://dockduty.com/blog/what-cut-does-tesla-take-from-robotaxi-owners.html Thu, 13 Aug 2026 08:10:00 -0400 Tesla has never announced a revenue split for owner-supplied cars on its robotaxi network. The only figure any executive has ever attached to it is Elon Musk's April 22, 2019 Autonomy Day remark — "25 percent to 30 percent of the revenue from those rides" — never reaffirmed and never retracted in the seven years since, and absent from every earnings call through Q2 2026 (August 5, 2026), which did not mention owner cars at all. This is the dated ledger: the one real number and its provenance, what Uber and Lyft actually take per ride, the roughly 29.9% implied by Uber's Q4 2025 Mobility results, the 25%-to-80% range analysts plug into models, the ending Waymo–Uber analog, and how to model ownership honestly with the split labeled as the unknown it is. General information, not investment advice. https://dockduty.com/blog/should-you-put-your-cybercab-in-an-llc.html https://dockduty.com/blog/should-you-put-your-cybercab-in-an-llc.html Mon, 10 Aug 2026 16:30:00 -0400 Florida follows the dangerous instrumentality doctrine — the only state applying it to automobiles — so a vehicle's titled owner is strictly, vicariously liable for what it does, with statutory caps of $100,000/$300,000 bodily injury plus $50,000 property damage. What a Florida LLC under FS §605.0304 actually shields, what pierces it, what it does not change (federal taxes, the car loan, the insurance bill), the titling and named-insured mechanics, and the real cost: $125 to form, $138.75 a year, $538.75 if filed after May 1. No court anywhere has ruled on whether an LLC shields a robotaxi owner — general information, not legal advice. https://dockduty.com/blog/what-if-your-robotaxi-operator-goes-out-of-business.html https://dockduty.com/blog/what-if-your-robotaxi-operator-goes-out-of-business.html Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0400 Holding the title is necessary but not sufficient when your car sits behind someone else's gate. The two car-sharing platforms that already failed with owners' vehicles on them (HyreCar's Feb 2023 Chapter 11 and Getaround's Feb 2025 US wind-down), Florida's possessory-lien statute (Fla. Stat. 713.58), the bankruptcy automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. 362(a)(3), and the eight contract clauses that decide how fast you get the car back — including an honest account of which clause in DockDuty's own agreement a failure would render worthless. https://dockduty.com/blog/cybercab-tax-deductions.html https://dockduty.com/blog/cybercab-tax-deductions.html Sun, 09 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0400 The Section 280F luxury-auto cap ($20,300 first-year for 2026), the transporting-persons-for-hire carve-out that may lift it, 100% bonus depreciation restored permanently by the OBBBA, the EV credits that ended Sept 30 2025, depreciation recapture, and why "passive income" is a marketing phrase rather than a tax status. Every rule cited; general information, not tax advice. https://dockduty.com/blog/how-to-finance-a-cybercab.html https://dockduty.com/blog/how-to-finance-a-cybercab.html Thu, 06 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0400 No Cybercab financing product exists yet, because no order book exists. The honest map of the four lanes — cash, commercial fleet financing, EV-specialist lenders, business credit — plus the day-one borrower checklist and the unknowns no lender can underwrite yet. https://dockduty.com/blog/waymo-vs-tesla-robotaxi.html https://dockduty.com/blog/waymo-vs-tesla-robotaxi.html Wed, 05 Aug 2026 20:15:00 -0400 Waymo runs ~500,000 paid rides a week across 14 metros; Tesla runs six driverless cities with ~21 tracked cars. The dated scoreboard, the two engineering bets, and the one difference that matters to would-be owners: you can't buy a Waymo. https://dockduty.com/blog/tesla-cybercab-specs.html https://dockduty.com/blog/tesla-cybercab-specs.html Wed, 05 Aug 2026 20:00:00 -0400 47.6 kWh battery, ~293 miles of range, 5.5 mi/kWh, 3,113 lbs, 219 hp, two seats, no steering wheel — the dated spec sheet from the June 2026 EPA filing, read the way a fleet owner should read it. https://dockduty.com/blog/can-you-own-a-robotaxi-in-another-state.html https://dockduty.com/blog/can-you-own-a-robotaxi-in-another-state.html Wed, 05 Aug 2026 11:45:00 -0400 Yes — the car's address matters, yours doesn't. Whose name stays on the title, who insures what, how the money reaches you, and what a depot does on-site so you never have to fly in. https://dockduty.com/blog/fractional-robotaxi-investment-vs-owning.html https://dockduty.com/blog/fractional-robotaxi-investment-vs-owning.html Wed, 05 Aug 2026 11:30:00 -0400 Robotaxi stocks, pooled fractional shares, and direct ownership all market themselves as "own a robotaxi." They are three different products. The title test, the accreditation question, and what happens to each holder if the platform folds. https://dockduty.com/blog/how-do-robotaxis-charge.html https://dockduty.com/blog/how-do-robotaxis-charge.html Wed, 05 Aug 2026 11:15:00 -0400 The Cybercab was announced with no charge port — wireless only. The observed 19–25 kW numbers, the hidden NACS port on validation cars, worked charging math from the EPA filing, and why the scarce depot resource is the transformer, not the land. https://dockduty.com/blog/how-many-tesla-robotaxis-are-there.html https://dockduty.com/blog/how-many-tesla-robotaxis-are-there.html Tue, 04 Aug 2026 10:45:00 -0400 Tesla robotaxi is live in seven US metros, six of them driverless — yet community tracking counts roughly 21 active unsupervised cars. The promised-vs-deployed ledger, every number dated and sourced. https://dockduty.com/blog/is-the-cybercab-street-legal.html https://dockduty.com/blog/is-the-cybercab-street-legal.html Tue, 04 Aug 2026 10:30:00 -0400 Not yet — and Zoox's July 30, 2026 federal approval for paid, control-free robotaxis shows the exact path Tesla still has to walk. The plain-English legal map. https://dockduty.com/blog/when-will-cybercab-deliveries-start.html https://dockduty.com/blog/when-will-cybercab-deliveries-start.html Tue, 04 Aug 2026 10:15:00 -0400 Employee rides announced at Giga Texas and a 2026 volume-production target that quietly disappeared. The dated, sourced answer to when Cybercab deliveries actually start. https://dockduty.com/blog/where-do-robotaxis-operate.html https://dockduty.com/blog/where-do-robotaxis-operate.html Sat, 25 Jul 2026 18:00:00 -0400 Every US metro with live robotaxi service, updated August 4, 2026 — Tesla's seven markets (six unsupervised), Waymo's eleven plus four announced, Zoox's first paid city, and what has to exist on the ground when a city turns on. Updated as markets open. https://dockduty.com/blog/cybercab-insurance-cost.html https://dockduty.com/blog/cybercab-insurance-cost.html Sat, 25 Jul 2026 17:30:00 -0400 The $400–800/month planning band explained as an estimate, not a quote — why personal auto can't cover a robotaxi, what drives pricing, who insures what in a depot model, and how to prepare. https://dockduty.com/blog/florida-robotaxi-law.html https://dockduty.com/blog/florida-robotaxi-law.html Sat, 25 Jul 2026 17:00:00 -0400 Three driverless metros turned on in one month. The plain-English read of Florida Statutes §316.85 — no human required, no permit gauntlet, one statewide rulebook. https://dockduty.com/blog/passive-income-ideas-robotaxi.html https://dockduty.com/blog/passive-income-ideas-robotaxi.html Sat, 25 Jul 2026 12:00:00 -0400 Rental property, dividends, vending, car-sharing — and the new entrant, judged on the column every other list deletes: how proven the income actually is. Our own row scores worst there, and we say so. https://dockduty.com/blog/is-a-cybercab-a-good-investment.html https://dockduty.com/blog/is-a-cybercab-a-good-investment.html Sat, 25 Jul 2026 11:30:00 -0400 We're biased and we lead with the bear case anyway: no order book, no owner earnings history, infant insurance market. Plus the bull math and how to test the thesis for $0–450. https://dockduty.com/blog/how-to-start-a-robotaxi-business.html https://dockduty.com/blog/how-to-start-a-robotaxi-business.html Sat, 25 Jul 2026 11:00:00 -0400 You can't deploy a robotaxi today — nobody can. The five positioning moves that matter before the order book opens. https://dockduty.com/blog/tesla-robotaxi-orlando.html https://dockduty.com/blog/tesla-robotaxi-orlando.html Fri, 24 Jul 2026 10:00:00 -0400 Checked August 14, 2026: no public order page yet, production live at Giga Texas since February, consumer sales under $30K promised this year. Every claim dated. https://dockduty.com/blog/can-you-buy-a-tesla-cybercab.html https://dockduty.com/blog/can-you-buy-a-tesla-cybercab.html Wed, 15 Jul 2026 10:00:00 -0400 The honest, dated answer — where availability really stands, how ordering is expected to work, and how to be ready on day one. https://dockduty.com/blog/cybercab-fleet-management.html https://dockduty.com/blog/cybercab-fleet-management.html Tue, 07 Jul 2026 10:00:00 -0400 Robotaxi fleet management, compared honestly: DIY, flat-fee operators, SPV/equity, and revenue-share depots — with worked numbers for Cybercab owners. https://dockduty.com/blog/how-much-does-a-cybercab-make.html https://dockduty.com/blog/how-much-does-a-cybercab-make.html Tue, 07 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Conservative revenue assumptions, every cost line owners forget, a worked monthly P&L at three duty cycles, and real breakeven math. https://dockduty.com/blog/where-to-park-your-fleet-of-cybercabs.html https://dockduty.com/blog/where-to-park-your-fleet-of-cybercabs.html Thu, 14 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400 A practical guide to depot options for Tesla Cybercab fleet owners — what a depot does, physical depots vs. software, and what it costs all-in. https://dockduty.com/blog/robotaxis-vs-uber-and-lyft.html https://dockduty.com/blog/robotaxis-vs-uber-and-lyft.html Sun, 10 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400 Why robotaxi ride costs could drop below Uber and Lyft — if the cost targets hold. https://dockduty.com/blog/owning-a-cybercab-as-a-fleet-vehicle.html https://dockduty.com/blog/owning-a-cybercab-as-a-fleet-vehicle.html Fri, 08 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400 The three ways people will own a Cybercab as a fleet vehicle — and what each one asks of the owner. https://dockduty.com/blog/what-is-an-av-depot.html https://dockduty.com/blog/what-is-an-av-depot.html Tue, 05 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400 What a robotaxi depot does — charging, cleaning, staging, dispatch — why Uber, Hertz, and Lyft are building them in 2026, and how Cybercab owners reserve a stall.